Studying Astronomy @ USA universities?

Question

I would like to study astronomy as B.a degree at one of the best universities in the United states, could you give me a list of these universities, and what they required ?

Answer 1

Most universities have undergraduate "introduction to astronomy" courses.

Astronomy really requires a good deal of math and physics as a prerequisite, and so astronomy itself is generally taught at the graduate-school level, after undergraduate study in maths, physics, and general science.

American universities with significant astronomy programs:

University of California, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Diego

Harvard

Yale

Princeton

Columbia

University of Chicago

University of Arizona

University of Hawaii

University of Colorado

California Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

University of Texas

Check the websites of each school for entrance requirements.

Answer 2

There are plenty of good universities that offer astronomy degrees, but first think about what you want to do with it.  There's not a lot you can do with just a BA in astronomy - you could teach high school science, or maybe work at a museum or observatory (that's not nearly as much fun as it sounds like it would be).  People working as astronomers have a PhD in astronomy or physics, and if you want to get a PhD in astronomy, you really need to major in physics.  So I'll list the top grad schools in astronomy, but any of them also offer good physics programs, and that's really what you should be looking for now if you want to do astronomy later.

Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Berkeley, CalTech, U Washington, U Arizona, U Hawaii, UT Austin, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Ohio State, U Virginia, UMass Amherst.

Answer 3

You've had a couple of god answers already.

Consider where you would like to be geographically and then look at the universities in that region. Many will have good programs.

As has already been stated - you basically have to do a lot of math and physics - so get a head start and take as much of this stuf as you can in high school.

If you live near a university - see if they have any astronomers and contact them. I'm an astro prof and I regularly give advice and even research experience to high school students...